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Position:Home>Theater & Acting> I'm trying to remember specific actors who in order to prepare for their rolQuestion: I'm trying to remember specific actors who in order to prepare for their role lived like their character!.!? I'm writing a paper on "Ethnography and the media" I want to write a little bit about how some actors actually spend time before filming living as their character would, in order to understand their character better! any help would be great!Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Its not so much that people who go out and live like their characters are doing "Method" acting!.!.!.character research like that actually has nothing to do with the craft of Method Acting and the people who taught in and refined it in the early 1900's!. Actors like doing this because if the character is so much different from them, they need to know what it is they are doing in the film!.!.!.which is really simple premise!.!.!.some of them take it really really far!.!.!. Daniel Day Lewis became a cobbler and lived in the woods for 8 months preparing for a few movies (possibly Last of the Mohichans) and never broke character during the filming of Gangs of New York!. Starting with Stanivlaski to Straussberg, to Elia Kazan, Uta Hagan, and Sanford Meisner!.!.!. None of them talk about about doing indepth character analysis in this way!.!.!.But! They do encourge research of characters, time periods, customs and inner emotional recall!. Really, Actors who live as their character before a film are just doing GOOD research that they couldn't get out of a book or from watching another film!. One's who spend years of their life preparing are only doing it because they want the public and media to know that "They spent months and years preparing for the Role", and every actor is different!. Look at Daniel Day Lewis, Deniro, Pacino, Mel Gibson (did similar research for braveheart), Russel Crowe (done a lot of this research for his last few big films), Merryl Streep, and Glenn Close!. Good Luck!.Www@QuestionHome@Com It's called method acting , the most famous would probably be Robert De Nero , In the movie 'A Bronx Tale' he plays a NYC Bus Driver , he actually studied and passed the Drivers test for that role, thats just one example , you should google him and you will find alot more info also Daniel Day Lewis who studied Boxing , Butchery and shoe cobbling to name a fewWww@QuestionHome@Com Edward Norton, Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn to add to the list!.!.!. There's a list here: http://atwaterplayhouse!.com/Www@QuestionHome@Com Google "method actors"!. Lots of stuff will come up about various "method" techniques actors have employed when preparing for a role!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I believe Johnny Depp has done that on a few occasions, likewise Viggo Mortensen!. I think it's a great tactic that works really well!Www@QuestionHome@Com I beleive that Mwarlon Brando was the first big actor to make use of method acting!. Robert DeNiro leaps to mind also!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Nicholas Cage for Leaving Las VegasWww@QuestionHome@Com Viggo Mortensen for the Lord of the Rings trilogyWww@QuestionHome@Com I think I read that Al Pacino is a method actor, google him!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |